Additive metal deposition is an industrial technique that builds fully-dense structures by melting powdered or wire metal, via a laser or other energy source, into solidifying beads, which are deposited side by side and layer upon layer upon a work piece substrate. It is known to utilize the process to repair and rebuild a worn or damaged component using a laser to build up structure on the component. The process is particularly useful to add features such as bosses or flanges on subcomponents of fabricated structures. The basic process involves adding layers to the component to create a surface feature on the component via the introduction of depositing material (delivered in the form of injected powder or a wire) into a laser beam. The additive process is known by several names including “laser cladding,” “laser metal deposition,” “direct metal deposition” or “additive metal layering.”
Additive metal layering is typically performed by using a computer aided design (“CAD”) to map the geometry of a part and then depositing metal, layer-by-layer, on the part. The CAD mapped geometry is input into a computer controlled (robotic) part handler that can manipulate the part in multiple axes of movement during the deposition process. In all of these techniques a heat source (typically an industrial laser beam) is used to create a melt pool into which a wire or powdered feedstock is fed in order to create beads upon solidification. In practice, the heat source is under computer numerical control and is focused onto a workpiece, producing the melt pool. A small amount of powder or wire metal is introduced into the melt pool, building up the part in a thin layer. The beam follows a previously determined toolpath. The toolpath is generated based on the CAD data that computes the needed part layer by layer. The beads are created by means of relative motion of the melt pool and the substrate, e.g. using an industrial robot arm or an XY-table. A part is then built by depositing the beads side by side and layer upon layer. The most popular approach combines a high power laser heat source with metal powder as the additive material.
Careful tuning of the deposition tool and parameters, such as the powder or wire feed rate, the energy input, and the traverse speed are therefore important in order to obtain layers, which are free from defects such as shape irregularities, lack-of-fusion or cracks. Droplet forming, i.e. globular transfer of the molten metal, is also a common disturbance that affects the geometrical profile of the deposited beads and stability of the additive layers.
Regulating the necessary needed power is critical to system operation and achieving a high-quality layered end product. The currently known laser additive processes attempt to address deposition quality issues in either of two ways. In this respect, the prior laser additive processes use a constant laser power or one regulated by a feedback (a/k/a “closed-loop”) sensor.
The issue with using a constant laser power is that the operator has to optimize the power level for a worst case scenario, typically the start of the process. This results in variations in both geometry and material properties as the melt pool size and temperature gradients vary with the local energy balance conditions around the melt pool. Using a constant energy throughout the deposition process is problematic because the additive process changes the geometry of the built structure during the process. Hence, the chosen constant power level represents a compromise selection. For example and as shown in FIG. 1A, at the start of the deposition process, the structure is positioned further from the laser source and too little energy is input into the deposition. At the mid-process point, shown in FIG. 1B, the target structure is closer to the energy source and the appropriate energy is present in the workpiece. However, by the end of the process, as shown, in FIG. 1C, the workpiece is closer to the energy source and too much energy is present in the work site.
Feedback systems represent an attempt to address the deficits of the constant power system. The typical prior art feedback systems attempt to control the deposition process by monitoring the dimensions of the part or the melt pool during the deposition process. Feedback or closed-loop systems are inherently reactionary, and thus can only react to conditions that have already drifted away from nominal. There is thus a need in the art for an improved method of regulating laser power during the additive process.